Chapter 140:
Vicky:
Vicky was trying to rub a migraine away, fingers caressing slow circles along her temples.
This was supposed to be Taylor’s wheelhouse, not hers!
“And why did you feel the need to dump Blue milk all over Cal’s head Merrin?”
“Because he’s stupid.” The pale girl answered with petulant mullishness.
Vicky sighed. “And why is he stupid.” She pressed, willing herself to have a bit more patience.
“I can tell you what happened.”
Vicky turned her head, offering a somewhat suspicious glare at the impish smile Karla was sporting just a few feet away; Iskt standing just a few feet behind with an equally ‘innocent’ look on his face.
They hadn’t changed a single bit since their own creche-days.
“Alright.” She answered, crossing her arms. “Spill.”
“Well, the little-est one-” The twi’lek paused seemingly trying to remember the name. “Shaira. She asked when she would get a lightsaber of her own. Cal told her that only Jedi use lightsabers.”
So then Meryn pointed out that Grievous isn’t a Jedi and he uses lightsabers.” Iskt continued. “So anyone can use them.”
She was starting to get an idea of where this was going…
“Cal said that wasn’t true-” Karla’s feet see-sawed back and forth as she swung her legs where she sat. “And that even if it wasn’t the Jedi council wouldn’t give them lightsabers because they were still Sith.”
Iskt nodded “That made Shaira start to cry-”
“And down came the blue milk on Cal’s head.” Karla finished.
Vicky sighed. “Merrin. You can’t go dumping milk on people’s heads.”
Unhelpfully, her own Padawan raised his hand. “No.” She stared at a spot along the far wall. “Other drinks aren’t allowed either!.”
The cheeky trandoshan put his hand back down.
She gave him an irritated side eye. He answered with a needle toothed smirk.
In front of her however, the little situation wasn’t quite handled yet. She prepared to get into a bit of a lecture. Maybe order that she go apologize to Cal when the girl’s next words put things into more context.
“We’re not Sith.” Merrin mumbled. “The Sith killed our sisters. Destroyed Dathomir.”
Vicky felt her features soften, realization dawning on her.
She let herself sigh kneeling down to place a hand on the girls head, noting instantly how her face scrunched up in irritation at the act. Vicky smiled at her anyway.
“I get it.” She said. “Cal shouldn’t have said that to you. But let me ask you this. Do you think he knows why he shouldn’t have said it?”
Merrin frowned- not quite getting what Vicky was leading to.
“He doesn’t know why-” She answered the girl. “Because you didn’t explain it. All you did was get mad and pour blue milk on his head.”
“I actually thought you did it because Shaira started crying.” Iskt chimed in from his spot.
His commentary was useful to prove her point. “See. This is why you have to talk first. Getting mad doesn’t actually fix things.”
“She did actually fix the crying problem.”
“Shh.” Vicky hushed him. “You were doing good. Don’t ruin it.”
“To be fair miss Vicky it was pretty funny.” Karla was similarly, not helping.
Even with the running peanut gallery commentary, Vicky saw Merrin’s lips twisted, not quite a grimace, but it was clear the girl realized she’d made a mistake, even if she didn’t quite want to admit it.
That’s alright, Vicky could nudge her to it. “So…” She began reaching over to grasp Merrin’s clenched fist, easing it into an open palm. “You’re going to go and explain why what he said hurt your feelings.” Now, the girl did grimace. “And, when Cal apologizes for saying it-” She knew Cal well enough to know that once it was explained to him, he’d feel bad enough that the ‘sorry’ would probably be the first thing out of his mouth. So it was a safe bet. He was always a good kid. “You apologize for the blue milk. Okay?”
Merrin was far too serious for a girl her age. It was actually somewhat difficult to parse through her emotions, hiding them as she was. But there was the ‘guilt’, just a kernel of it and a desire to make amends. Cal had been one of the few Padawans of the same relative age group that didn’t shy away overmuch from the Dathomiri kids. Wether that was his own nature or Rancisis’ guidance, or maybe a bit of both, Vicky couldn’t say. But he and Merrin had developed a budding friendship this last month.
“On Dathomir a sister would not apologize to a night brother.”
We’re not on Dathomir- She didn’t say. That was a foot in mouth even she wouldn’t commit.
What she said instead was a far more diplomatic “Cal isn’t a night brother though.” She reminded gently. “He’s your friend. And friends say they’re sorry when they do something wrong.”
Merrin frowned, and actually turned to look at Iskt and Karla, The former offering a thumbs up and the other smiling back.
Then she sighed. “Where did Cal go? This temple is too big.”
“I’ll show you!” Karla answered before Vicky could volunteer her to go- the young Twilek’s emotion reading would help prevent misunderstandings- and as if to prove her point, her own intent was easily read as the red skinned girl offered a subtle wink before taking Merrin by the hand to lead her down the hall in search of Cal.
Vicky turned her head to look at Iskt, who stayed by his spot just beside the bench where Karla had been sitting. “Not going with?” She asked, genuinely curious. “Usually you and Karla are joined at the hip.”
He shook his head. “No. I think it’ll be hard enough for Merrin to say sorry even without an audience.”
She looked at the boy, not quite an adult but getting there day by day. “Every time I think its just snark and witty comments, you go and say something like that.” She commented with a soft smile. “You turned out ok kid.”
“Don’t tell anyone, Master.” He demanded with another needle toothed smirk. “I have a reputation to keep.”
“Handle that well, you did.”
Startled, Vicky turned, finding to her surprise Yoda and Yaddle both on their little floaty chairs, hovering towards her.
Iskt straightened from his place by the wall, offering a respectful bow. “Masters.”
Vicky bowed too, albeit a bit more shallowly. “How long have you two been there?” She asked.
“Long enough.” Yaddle answered with a small smile of her own.
“Hrm.” Yoda nodded. “Other masters, Difficult they have found the Dathomiri children to be.”
Vicky shrugged. “Honestly I was more thinking how would Tay handle this and just played it by ear.” She answered honestly. “If she hadn’t said anything about that whole… Sith comment… I probably woulda stuck my foot in my mouth and jumped the gun pretty badly.”
“But- you did not.” Yaddle answered. “Learn only from failures must we? Happy victories can teach too.”
She shrugged. “Fair enough.”
Tossing a look around the hall, there were a few Jedi passing through along their day to day- far fewer than just a month ago and most of those she saw were knights or Masters in their own right.
Still the emptiness of the hall did give them some semblance of privacy, if only by sheer distance.
“Masters-” She began. “I doubt you two came down here just to talk shop with me…” She crossed her arms, leaning back a bit from them. “So… what’s wrong?”
Yoda shook his head with a small smile of his own now. “Wrong. Many things. But here. No. Merely wished for your opinion we did.”
“Regarding what?”
“The Dathomiri.” Yaddle nodded. “All crechelings, and Padawans as you know are being evacuated. The Dathomiri are in no less danger than they.”
“And yet- the enclaves, concerned they are, small their temples are.”
“And receiving an influx of nearly two dozen dark side leaning kids wasn’t exactly in their respective budget bills.” She sighed, now rubbing at her forehead. She really would get a headache.
She couldn’t really blame the Enclaves and satellite temples.
They were already being flooded with… for lack of a better term refugees that the Jedi were sending them to get them off of coruscant. Many of them were rapidly trying to expand to accommodate. Not just Padawans. But entire companies and chapters of the various service corp branches- thousands if not millions of people. Not to mention Data from the archives, special needs species and or children- working with the respective governments of their enclave world where applicable, and doing all of it as quietly as possible.
It was already a massive undertaking, logistically, financially, emotionally, and likely physically.
Asking for them to make room for twenty plus dark side trained or at the very least leaning children… No. She couldn’t blame them for balking at the notion.
And it wasn’t just the whole ‘Dark side’ thing either The Dathomiri children did have their own ‘special needs’ They were raised under an entirely different doctrine and social structure after all, one isolated from the galaxy. So it wasn’t their fault that they had a pretty massive culture clash.
For example; the fact that they quite literally only really obeyed women authority figures. .
No. She wasn’t being hyperbolic. The girls literally only obeyed females, powerful females to boot. Matriarchal society as she understood it.
And so, naturally the only females they really listened to were the ones on the Jedi council. And maybe some very stern creche-mistresses tacked on.
Hence why she, Yaddle, Adi and occasionally even Billaba and Shaak Tii had been getting roped more and more into ‘managing’ the girls whenever there was a problem.
Not all of the Enclaves even had Female ‘Council members’ of their own to speak of. Fay was pretty much it and nevermind getting the woman to agree (which she might if only to see if she could bake the Dark Side out of them with delicious confectionary) but the actual Jedi Council, as in her own colleagues here might just have a collective conniption if you sent twenty plus darksiders to the world of one of their oldest enemies; Mandalore wrapped in a bow.
So, Vicky sighed. “What are our options?”
“Discuss this we have. Only two, we see.”
“Keep them here or split them up?” Those were the two that fell off the top of her head. Neither was exactly a good option.
Yoda nodded.
Vicky took a deep breath, closing her eyes. “My first instinct is to keep them here.” She answered honestly.
“Truly?” Yaddle answered. “They are in danger here.”
She nodded. “Yeah. I know-” Yoda leaned forward, little claws caressing his chin. “But… remember, Jedi don’t put the same emphasis on, family’ or Clan as they do. They call each of eachother and probably do see eachother as ‘brothers and ‘sisters’. If you split them up that’s just gonna cause a lot of pain, confusion and worst of all-”
“Resentment.” Little green nodded. “Already tread a dark enough path, many do. Darker, still it may become.”
Vicky nodded. “Not that the kids aren’t important but how are we looking on other fronts?”
If there was one good thing that could be said about this proverbial staredown is that it gave the Jedi more time to prepare, and part of the preparations meant ‘wargaming’ for the worst case scenario with their clone commanders.She doubted the chipped clones were going over war games with Palpatine.
Quietly, engineers and technicians were either creating or reactivating air and water filtration plants under the temple to run on the temple’s own power grid and generators. More vulnerable, less defensible wings of the temple were being hastily redesigned for more defensive emplacements. One of the many advantages of having deployable defensive emplacements as part of the clone army’s loadout.
Escape routes, long abandoned and near collapsed from discuss, had been cleared away, leading down to the lower works. Nearly mothballed clone gunships from the very start of the war were now being deployed to secured, ad-hoc hangar bays where they could evacuate the last of the Jedi if the very worst outcome were to happen and they all needed to flee the temple.
They discovered through the shadows that the blueprints they had of the Senate building were out of date, long range scans along with internal ones revealed almost a honeycomb hive of hidden hallways, used by aids, service droids and senators who wanted to be discreet. The tunnel leading to the Limerge building hadn’t been the only addition to the round monstrosity over the centuries.
That meant they not only had plenty of ways to actually get inside and reach Palpatine beyond punching down the front door; but they also had ways of extracting key allies like Senator Organa or Satine if needed.
Don’t get her wrong, she was all for the front door approach. Make a statement. But that would likely mean a lot of bodies both friendly and not.
Yaddle nodded. “We are ‘following the money’ as you said in our last council session.” The older woman smiled a bit at the joke. Vicky felt herself flush a bit in embarrassment as she remembered her rather impatient outburst.
Just follow the money, stupid!
Granted it hadn’t been at any one member of the Council, just a general frustration as day after day they kept running into walls and whenever they didn’t it felt more like bread crumbs.
But the crumbs were -slowly… painfully slowly- coming together to form a big, crummy pile.
The ‘money trail’ they’d been following now however was none other than Hego Damask. The primary financier of the Clone army. Sifo Dyaz might have dreamt it up. But Damask footed the bill.
The money trail was now almost a decade cold, but if all their conjecture and putting things together was correct- that likely meant Damask had been a Sith himself, Probably Sidious’ own Master, which would explain his rather sudden death as well.
After all, those clone control chips now made a whole lot more sense- if your goal was to kill all the Jedi.
It genuinely was terrifying when she sat down to think on it. Just how thoroughly the Jedi, herself and Taylor included had been led around by the nose for well over a decade at this point.
That was fine though. The Jedi didn’t need a decade to get back at him for it. Just a pile of crummy evidence.
And if all else failed… well. For all that she was mad at Taylor right now for Zygerria; she’d be happy to let her favorite girl indulge her baser instincts here.
Vicky hoped she went for the eyes first.
—
Taylor:
I came to slowly. For the first time in basically my functional memory I woke up from sleep to the sound of utter and complete silence.
My mind didn’t even process, or realize that I was awake.
For so long, the instant consciousness brushed across my senses I was so instantly aware of the entire world around me that I didn’t fully grasp its absence as being real. I genuinely believed I was still asleep, or dreaming.
But thenas my conscious awareness finally kicked in and I realized that it wasn’t silence per-se, but rather the utter stillness of everything around me- my eyes snapped open.
I was still in my room aboard the Resolute, the cold blue lighting reflecting off the walls was now absent, and the bugs in the walls, still as they ere barely even detected the subtle vibrations of the ships life support system still being online.
Everything else was just… quiet… dead.
I sat up from the bed, trying to flex my power, to make the bugs, even as few as there were on this ship move and obey.
They didn’t.
It was strange. I could feel the command going through, feel their wings begin to move.
But it was sluggish, they were sluggish. Like they were drugged, or asleep.
Did bugs even sleep?
I couldn’t hear anything throughout my range on the ship. No clones moving, no droids cleaning Not even the machinery and automated systems that controlled the drive, coolant, power, energy or so on functioning.
The only reason I knew I was even on a ship at all was the fact that the slight sensation of my insects presence gave me the rough layout beyond these walls that I had fallen asleep to.
With deliberate, cautious slowness I reached out with the Force, feeling it answer my call readily, my lightsaber all but thumping into my hand before I swung my feet off the bed, bare soles pressing down onto cold metal floors. I kept my lightsaber in my hand, or at the very least within arms reach as I put my armor on, washing out my mouth as quickly as I dared before slipping on my mask and then marching out of the room.
Or at least I tried to. The door didn’t activate when I pressed the button to open.
With a wave of my hand I used the Force to manipulate the mechanism. ‘Manually’ opening the door so to speak.
The hallway beyond was dark, the automated lightning all but gone and only emergency yellow lighting provided any sort of illumination.
It was also filled with white armored bodies.
I rushed towards the nearest clone; the man was laying on the ground and a quick scan told me that he wasn’t dead just… sleeping.
I went to the next body.
He was the same.
One by one, I checked and scanned every body I came across.
They were all alive just… sound asleep.
Doubling back, I tried to wake them, shoving, calling out their names when I recognized them, or the numbers on their tags when I didn’t.
Not a single one even stirred.
I made my way over to the two adjacent rooms, Noble’s rooms. My men were there- Cid had fallen asleep on the workbench however, his own cybernetic arm in pieces, a metal bolt digging into his cheek. I pulled him back so he was leaning more comfortably on the chair, peeled the bolt off his cheek as it left a distinct red mark. Pratchet had fallen asleep, ironically, by the coffee machine.
But other than falling asleep rather awkwardly and uncomfortably they seemed fine, like all other clones so far.
My first thought was some kind of airborne toxin. But that wouldn’t explain my immunity, unless it was specifically tailored to affect clone genetics. But that didn’t make sense either- not when I passed by a service droid and the droid was similarly non functional.
It wasn’t evn shut down- as far as I could sense the electricity, its internal signals was just… not moving at the right pace.
It was Force manipulation. Powerful, on a scale and precision I’d never seen before.
At least… not unless I was khepri.
My thoughts drifted, zeroing in on the only thing I knew might be capable of this.
Queen?
But her voice was silent. Only the faintest echo of something tickling the back of my mind.
…
Okay… Prioritize. Find Anakin. Then the bridge.
I spread out my senses, like a lightning bolt through water, my awareness within the Force expanded incalculably fast, and I found Anakin’s presence almost instantaneously, and he at the very least was conscious, his own senses pinging off of mine like a beacon.
We started heading towards eachother.
Even in the ship the size of a Venator, two people making a straight bee line for eachother cut the travel time down to just a minute or so.
“I don’t suppose you have any better idea on what’s going on?” I asked the instant we saw eachother, negotiating my way over a cluster of sleep bound bodies.
Anakin shook his head. The yellow emergency lights almost made him look sickly here. “No. I went to bed and left the night shift crew just before we were gonna get into hyperspace? You?”
“Went to bed a bit earlier than that.” I admitted. But everything was fine when I did.”
“Same.” He said. “Blackbox. Every ship has one. It logs everything that happens across the ship, the bridge especially. We can get our answers there.”
“Will the electronics even work?” I asked, genuinely. “Every droid I’ve come across has been affected by whatever this is. The ship too.”
Anakin shrugged. “Won’t know til we try.”
Fair enough.
We made our way towards the bridge.
Just as before, every Clone was asleep and every droid non functional. The yellow emergency lights didn’t make the situation any less tense.
Reaching the bridge door, Anakin didn’t even bother with the controls, waving a single hand to force the door open like I’d done in my room earlier.
Immediately both of us squinted at the very bright light that slammed into our retinas.
Blinking away the glare, and the sting, it took a second for my eyes even through the lenses of my mask to adjust.
“Why the hell are we on a planet?” Anakin stole the words right out of my mouth.
We stepped forward onto the bridge, where through the main viewport, we could see a lush, forested jungle world, with actual floating rocks and mountains hovering over the canopies.
The commander of the 501rst grunted, aggravated, he turned and started marching towards the bridge computer. I for my part, kept examining the planet itself. Not with my eyes no. With the Force.
I’d felt it when I woke up, but now, looking at this place. I was keenly aware of one thing-
“I know.” Anakin said behind me, likely catching my surface thoughts. “Its unbelievably strong here.” He said. “I can actually read what you’re thinking without even trying right now.” He admitted fingers click clacking on the console.. “Hell, I’m actually trying to shut most of it out.”
“And how’s that going?” I asked. Genuinely curious. It was no secret that Anakin had more raw force potential than everyone in the Order.
“Impossible.” He answered. “I’m like a living metal rod in the middle of a lightning storm…” He paused, squinting at the screen. “Got something.”
“The computer’s working?” I asked, surprised.
He shrugged “This one is!”
I made my way over, Anakin beginning to explain. “Internal logs reported a cascade of errors and system failures at this timestamp here, Zero Thirty, Galactic Standard. So if we just check the video-logs at that timestamp-”
A holo-screen bloomed up as I reached his side.
“The hell are we- these aren’t the coordinates.”
We could see the Clone bridge crew milling about on screen. Every man at their station, nothing seemed amiss quite yet
“Don’t know sir. Must’ve been an error in the hyperspace vector, or perhaps a typo when inputting the original destination.”
We need to get the Generals back to Coruscant. So lets hustle. Input the coordinates correctly this time. Gods only know how many hours or days this detour cost u-”
“The hell is that?”
The startled shout brought all eyes towards the trooper, and then the main viewport windows.
There was a shape there. In the void of space. Massive in size and scope. It was a diamond, floating in the space between stars.
I narrowed my eyes at the screen,
“Something that size should have been picked up on scans long before it got that close.” Anakin mumbled.
“Rewind a bit.”
He did.
Even focusing, even trying to look at the thing, I could almost feel the error code in my own brain. The subtle shifting that told me ‘There’s nothing there’. Not until I ‘see it’ but rather until it chooses to be seen.
A very real shiver crawled down my spine.
It's a space station with an active stranger effect.
The troopers on screen are equally hesitant, unsure. And I can’t blame them.
“Get the Generals.” The captain said.
Then, on the screen at least. The ship shuddered.
Lights flickered, computer stations shut down.
“S-sir. Systems are down?”
The diamond like structure shuddered open, a bright light practically bathing the bridge in blinding luminance.
“Sir. We’re getting closer! It must be pulling us with a tractor beam!”
The clones were moving now, trying to get systems online, one shouted that comms weren’t working. They couldn’t contact either me or Anakin.
That explains why they weren’t woken up.
One clone rushed for the door, only for it too to not be functioning, leaving the bridge completely cut off from the rest of the ship as the Venator was drawn into the blindingly bright light of the superstructure.
Then, even the Blackbox hard wired systems seemed to fail, a red ‘error’ sign blinking on the screen before Anakin and I were greeted with the sight of ourselves stepping into the bridge just a minute or so ago.
Anakin shut off the log.
He stayed quiet for a moment before clicking on a few more buttons on the console. “Good news.” He said with false cheerfulness, hiding the tension we were both feeling, albeit, poorly. “The atmosphere's breathable.”
“If we’re inside that station-” I began “-then this doesn’t look like a space station. I don’t even see a roof or superstructure of any kind.’
“We can just add that to the ever expanding list of ‘weird shit about this place’ eh?” He proposed. Straightening to his full height, he stretched. “Well… clearly, someone wanted to show us the galaxy’s latest tourist spot… so why not oblige them?”(X)(X)(X)To answer everyone's question from a last chapter: Yes. They are on Mortis.Which means QA who brought them there, is also on Mortis :3
Everyone out of the Universe! Its closing now!And also yes, that is Merrin and Cal from the Jedi Survivor games meeting up at long last and getting along swimingly! :p